The invention relates to a method for collecting at least one product from among a line of products, so as to move this product onto a deposition station that is located close to the line of products.
In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the latter has as its objective to create batches of products on the deposition station.
The grouping of products of the flask, bottle or other type can be done in multiple ways depending on the type and the nature of the products and also depending on the desired throughput.
A form of grouping is described in the application GB2174667. The products arrive in a line on a conveyor, and they are picked up, on the fly, by a pusher device that carries a batch of products.
The pusher device comes in the form of a rack that is arranged longitudinally, on the side of the line of products. This rack is driven by a movement combined with a loop: both a longitudinal movement in the direction of advance of the products and a transverse movement for depositing the batch of products in a row, on the side of the conveyor, where they are then taken up by other means.
This pick-up device may not undergo any disruption at the level of the distribution of the products on the conveyor. The batch of products should actually be perfectly set up to be picked up by the pusher.
So as to resolve the drawbacks of the grouping device described in the document GB 2 174 667, a new installation of the type of the one described in the application FR 2 918 359 has been developed.
The document FR 2 918 359 describes an installation that comprises:                A conveyor of products, the conveyor having a path of travel and a direction of travel,        A deposition station, contiguous to the conveyor,        At least one collector comprising at least one receptacle that can collect at least one product, said at least one receptacle being directed in the path of travel of the products, with the collector being mounted to move along a path that is parallel to the path of travel and along a path that is transverse to the path of travel in a plane that is perpendicular to the conveyor.        
Such an installation has certain drawbacks: on the one hand, when the products enter into the collector, they are abruptly stopped in their movement, which tends to destabilize them. The products can thus pick up a pendulum motion that can cause them to fall. On the other hand, the processing throughput of such an installation is limited.
It has been proposed, to increase the throughput, to increase the number of collectors used in the installation, as the documents FR 2 948 650 and FR 2 954 756, in particular, show.